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Canadian gov't won't stop inbound SMS fees

updated 03:55 pm EDT, Fri August 8, 2008

by MacNN Staff

Canada on Inbound SMS

The ruling Conservative Party government in Canada has "no intention" of banning fees carriers want to charge for incoming SMS messages, the country's Minister of Industry Jim Prentice said today. While Bell Canada and Telus have both drawn criticism for plans that would see each carrier charge 15 cents for each incoming message outside of bundles, potentially forcing subscribers to pay for spam, Prentice argues that forcing these companies to allow incoming text for free would interfere with their businesses.

The announcement follows a meeting with officials from both Bell and Telus, which Prentice claims assured him would filter out spam and refund customers who are charged for unsolicited ads. Critics, including the New Democratic Party, have previously retorted that the move is nonetheless a "cash grab" to profit off of frequent texting and push customers towards pricier bundles.

The Minister also unusually claims that Canadians have the option of leaving for another carrier. "The telecommunications market in Canada is dynamic -- choice is available," he claims.

His statement comes despite the existence of only three national cellular providers in Canada, with only Rogers left offering incoming SMS for free. The latter has so far mentioned no plans to charge for incoming text but has alternately been criticized for its relatively high data rates.

Other companies exist in Canada but have often remained regional-only carriers, as firms such as Rogers have often bought out firms with a larger presence. The field isn't set to widen until 2009 or 2010, when winners from the recent government wireless auction will first establish their own cellular networks.

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This is a very limited free market. Remember that most customers have 1-3 year contracts, meaning that they can't simply get up and leave for another company. They get milked many months before they can change.

Oh and Rogers may be the only main company left, but small ones (that buy from Rogers/Bell in bulk) such as PC Mobile are still around. I use PC Mobile (Bell network)and it is great. Zero fees and no incoming text fee.

I'm going to get pissed when cheap-o friends complain about me sending them texts. I may just stop altogether.

You're also bound by the technology of the phone you have. If you bought an expensive smart phone that uses GSM you can only use Roger in Canada. Where is the freedom of choice here? Dump your expensive phone in the garbage and buy a new one. Our government is DUMB and needs to be replaced soon. We need competition and we need it NOW. Monopoly is only good when it's the game, not when it affects so many lives and only serves to enrich a few pockets in detriment of so many. Down with monopoly.

Further south, in the US, incoming text and voice isn't free. Regardless of who calls or why, you pay for it. At least for incoming calls, you can choose not to answer if you don't want to pay. For SMS, though, you have no choice. Unscrupulous carriers could easily figure out schemes to spam you with some cheesy marketing for which you end up paying some $0.20 per message. The only way out of it is to sign up for some (additional $$$) SMS plan.

If the carriers are allowed to change your contract mid stream you should be allowed to dump them penalty free. Sort of a get out of jail free card, this where the government should step in if they wont stop them from changing the terms of your contract then they should require a clause that allows you to walk away penalty free.

Yes, Fido is owned by Rogers but they offer different plans and options and both Rogers and Fido offer unlimited incoming Texts.

I went with Fido because of the earlier evenings and weekend options and 30 bucks for 6GB is not that bad especially considering that I might go for an even cheaper plan as I've barely used more than 100MB in my first month with an iPhone.

Jim Prentice is a traitor and a coward. Par for the course jimmy! He's also tying to push through a digital millennium type copywrite act that only accommodates foreign lobbyists. If you're Canadian, wake up and vote these corporate shills out of office. By the way, the complete communications market place (cable, internet, land line and cell phones) are controlled by a duo-gopoly with a few regional players and Telus. There is no choice and there is price collusion. The free market's dead.

Most people who are outraged by this do not understand it.1. If you have even the $3 text bundle then all incoming from other phones are still free.2. Incoming from anything other than another mobile phone has always been charged. So incoming messages from email to sms gateway was always a fee and that's where the spam was coming through.3. You could always ask for a credit if any spam emails got through and they are making it easier by forwarding the message to the short code spam and get an automatic credit.4. The government never had the authority to force them to change this policy. Mobile service is unregulated, only the air wave spectrum usage and interconnection to the pstn is regulated. 5. Telus is giving most customers who complain and threaten to cancel a free text message bundle. So I suggest you call and ask for the cancellation department and tell them you are considering switching because of the new incoming fees. I almost guarantee they will give you a free bundle in exchange for you staying. Yes even if you are still in a contract you can threaten them this way. But be nice about it or you don't get as much.6. With Telus you can go into their online mytelusmobility.com website and disable all incoming text messaging if you do not want to be charge or you can just call in and make the request (The way of turning it off is really hard to find and most peoples cookie settings are set too high for the site to even work properly in that section) For the record it's the Preferences button in send a message in the tools area. Set your cookies to accept everything from *.telus.com or it fails or turn the cookie privacy down to low temporarily.With Bell you need to call in to have incoming SMS disabled.Only thing that sucks is that people you send SMS to you are not notified that it was not delivered, it just goes into the bit bucket.

7. And this is a big one for me. Why has NOBODY mentioned that Rogers has jacked up their SMS rates for sending text to friends in the USA. Bell and Telus still just charge their regular rate for sending to the USA. If you do any kind of Canada to USA texting then Rogers became super expensive. Bell and Telus consider USA and Canada the same for SMS rates. You can even go down in the USA with your phone and text for the same cost as here (have unlimited bundle then you can send and receive unlimited texts while roaming in the USA)

Now I'm not trying to defend this price hike. They sure are being dumb about it. It's double billing basically, the sender used to pay on all mobile to mobile SMS transactions and now they get to double charge for those. If you are like me and have a free unlimited text bundle thanks to threatening to cancel it still affects me because now I will not send a quick SMS to someone if I think they may be charged for it.

But cry me a river if you expected the government to step in on an unregulated business changing their prices. I applaud them for making the attempt but Bell and Telus appear to have called their Bluff and are going ahead at this point and throwing free bundles at anyone angry enough to complain. (By the way first level reps cannot give free bundles, you need to call or be transferred to the loyalty/cancellation departments for this)

@que_ball actually, that's incorrect. i used to use my phonenumber@txt.bell.ca as a quick notification for network server alert notifications and this would never be charged. now, it appears this will be...

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